A state legislator in Kentucky, USA, wants to mandate porn filters on all PCs and mobile phones sold in the state.
Rep. Dan Johnson (R-Mt. Washington) issued a proposal that would require devices sold with internet access to be shipped with software to block out "obscenity, child pornography, revenge pornography, and …

Re: Seriously?

You have to remember that by and large the world is run by frustrated old men* who hate the idea that someone, somewhere, is having more fun than they are. As a consequence they are determined to ban anything they might not be getting the chance to enjoy personally.

Re: Seriously?

There is plenty of all kinds of sin & evil in pretty much the whole of literature across all genres. Does that make it okay?

You must not understand the purpose of the Bible or why it contains all that naughty stuff humans have done right from the start.

"It is only depictions of sex as a mutually pleasurable experience that is a problem, really."

Porn is NOT truly mutual; it is clearly exploitive of women and should be stopped. Filters are one way to stop it, since calling on society to clean up its own act doesn't seem to be working very well.

Re: Seriously?

I think the point is that the presence of porn has become all pervasive and younger and younger children are getting exposure to it. If you can't rely on responsible parenting (and that includes parents being sufficiently cognisant of technology to apply filters to their children's devices) then perhaps we do need to consider some degree of internet control. I appreciate that this goes against all the principles of Freedom of Information (and it is perhaps only one small step from there to greater censorship). The question is, which is of greater import to the health and wellbeing of society as a whole?

Re: Seriously?

Re: Seriously?

If he doesn't like porn, he doesn't have to look at it.

He almost certainly does like to look at porn. A lot. He's in the same boat as a large number of Christian right-wing talebangelicals. There are several (not necessarily mutually-exclusive) reasons why they do this sort of thing.

1) They like looking at porn, doing drugs, homosexuality, whatever, but feel it is wrong. Therefore they need legislation to prevent them doing it. It's the same reason some ex-smokers become extreme anti-smokers. They want temptation put out of their way.

2) They like $WHATEVER and get an extra naughty thrill from an adrenalin rush if it's illegal. Several gay guys have told me they believe that's why homosexuality was illegal in the UK for so long despite quite a few MPs being gay. They also say that's why cottaging is still popular: having sex in a public toilet is illegal on decency grounds, and therefore has that extra thrill to it.

3) They like $WHATEVER and feel it ought to be exclusive to the élite and not wasted on ordinary plebs, who aren't sophisticated enough to truly enjoy it or who take it to extremes. Pretty much like prohibition in the US where many of those in power thought the masses couldn't handle alcohol properly but they, of course, could.

4) They're fuckwits.

Obligatory amusing musical video (3.5 minutes) about the pastor of a megachurch who railed mightily against drugs and homosexuality then was found to have done crystal meth with the rent boy he was fucking. When the story first broke one of his spin doctors put out that the guy was completely heterosexual, hence the video.

I am not sure how they could accomplish this should the law get passed, even if every PC, tablet and phone came with an app to block access to porn, what is to stop the owner uninstalling the app without paying the $20 fee or just reinstalling the OS and not installing the filtering software?

Technical Feasibility,.....

@Velv

Indeed, I recall a British politician proposing that web browsers should have built in filters and that web sites should come with a rating so parents could block their kids from accessing adult rated sites,.... he basically invented RSAC,.... just about a decade after it was implemented. It's embarrassing politicians are so out of touch, and their press and PR people just let them speak their brains on these matters.

Re: Technical Feasibility,.....

Surely if a crazy plan like this were to be implemented , it would be much easier to do all the filtering at the ISP point? Most ISPs already offer this. Also that would prevent smartarse kids from bypassing the software.

Ever tried getting rid of the baked-in apps on a tablet or phone? Joe Average can't do it and anyway, that's the warranty out of the window.

Likewise, few PCs come with OS installation media. If it can be installed at all, it's either from a hidden install partition or you have to create a CD/DVD/USB stick from the running OS with a vendor provided tool, any of which methods will only install the original factory defaults. Again, Joe Average won't know how to get around that or will have to resort to buying Windows (still the vast majority of users) at a higher price than paying the removal fee or using a pirated version potentially full of malware.

"They" really don't need complex technical solutions if "they" decide this sort of thing should come to pass. "They" just need the majority to conform.

Normally, I would agree, but sexual predation issues seem to be so widespread that I would hesitate to put the boot in too readily. Let's not be too gleeful about Republicans getting outed; there may be more revelations on the Democrat side as well.

You have to keep records of those who paid the fee. Then later you introduce a punitive law that will only apply to your registered targets. I can think of some UK politicians who would do that - claiming a divine right to apply their dogma to everyone.

Stop it !!!

They all doth protest too much...

"Johnson has been accused of sexually assaulting a 17 year-old"

Why doesn't this surprise me. It's seemingly the same for all fear based religions that try to repress human nature such as Catholicism and Islam that all we seemingly get is report after report after report as to how these scared and socially inept scumbags seem to have taken advantage of their "trusted" position, and how they just can't seem to keep their grubby sleazy hands off of the children or the vulnerable.

Great Idea!!!

I've got a great idea! How about all politicans have to put their entire net worth into a government bond when they are elected. If they get to the end of their term without being involved in a scandal of some sort, they get their money back, if not it goes to the government. I can see our taxes dropping by the minute...

Or i suppose we can go the Sir Terry route and just chuck all politicians in prison the moment they are elected, since we already know they're criminals - why wait for the criminality to be proven?

...allow Kentuckians to have the blocks lifted, but only after paying a $20 fee...

Good idea. It's like that public television fee ("GEZ") you have to pay in Germany to watch TV. Or to not watch TV, because they found it's too much hassle to figure our who is watching stuff online. So, Kentucky, go ahead and make it a compulsory fee -- use it to fund 'quality entertainment'.

"One of the most important patterns of conservative message-making is projection. Projection is a psychological notion; it roughly means attacking someone by falsely claiming that they are attacking you. Conservative strategists engage in projection constantly."

--"What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?" http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/conservatism.html